Senator Reed more than impressed with renovation of Providence’s historic Arcade building

Saturday

Aug 17, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PROVIDENCE — U.S. Sen. Jack Reed spent about a half-hour Friday morning with Evan Granoff, owner of the Arcade in Providence, on a tour of the historic building downtown.Work crews are pushing to the end...

Paul Grimaldi Journal Staff Writer paulegrimaldi

PROVIDENCE — U.S. Sen. Jack Reed spent about a half-hour Friday morning with Evan Granoff, owner of the Arcade in Providence, on a tour of the historic building downtown.

Work crews are pushing to the end of a $7-million renovation of the building, America’s oldest indoor mall. The Arcade’s interior spaces are being transformed into spaces for new restaurants and shops, as well as 70 micro-lofts.

“This far exceeds my expectation,” Reed told Granoff near the end of the tour.

Painted signs are up for some of the retailers committed to Arcade’s new shop spaces. Among the retailers who will fill the building’s first floor are DASH Bicycle, Jessica Ricci Jewelry, New Harvest Coffee Roasters, Royal Male, Southwest Passage and Sugar Coated Heaven.

There will be three restaurants in the building. The basement will become an indoor bicycle garage, complete with storage lockers.

Granoff, of 130 Westminster Street Associates LLC, is transforming the top two floors into micro-loft apartments. The apartments’ lack of ovens or cook tops — they’ll all come with microwaves, as well as refrigerators and flat-screen TVs — doesn’t bother the state’s senior senator.

“I’m a microwave cooker,” Reed said.

Granoff’s project fits in with the “re-urbanization” trend the senator said he sees in Providence and in other American cities.

The Arcade is just steps away from four others structures along Dorrance and Weybosset streets undergoing a similar renovation.

The Providence Gas Building, National Grid addition, Narragansett Hotel Garage and historic Teste Block are being renovated into a mixed-use complex with 56 luxury apartments, three restaurants (including one on the roof), a 60-car garage and a dry cleaner.

Reed spoke to Granoff about a federal grant program aimed at helping cities plant trees as a way to improve air and water quality. It’s a pool of money, Reed noted, that could help the city make the streets around the Arcade more attractive to prospective tenants.